Shooting The Rapids Of The Colorado

MAY, 1930 Mileage so great that the slight bene-fits of each year's work have been lost by the time the next year rolled 'round. This is one of the reasons why progress in the improvement of the local roads has not kept pace with the more order-ly improvement of the main roads by the state and Federal governments.

"But a movement is under way, and already well advanced, the effects of which will soon be evident in a very ma-terial improvement of the condition of the local roads. That movement is the steady enlargement of the systems of state and Federal-aid roads, which in recent years has been taking place more rapidly than most people realize.

"In the selection of the roads that make up these systems, the Federal and state governments have wisely avoided the mistake of the county and township authorit-ies. They have limited the ex-tent of the systems to the mileage that could be improved as whole in a reason-able length of time. The roads chosen have been the most important roads. and together they form a connected network that covers the entire country.

"The Federal law limits the size of the Federal-aid system to seven per cent of the total mileage of roads with the definite purposes of preventing the waste-ful scattering of the national appropria-tions; but it provided that when this limited mileage had been improved, oth-er roads could be added. In three states the mileage selected under the original seven per cent limitation has already been improved and the size of the system has been increased by adding other roads; and a similar extension will be possible in a number of other states.

"In a similar manner and for the same reason, the states have limited the initial mileage of their state systems. But they, also, have found it possible from time to time to add to the extent of these systems. Between 1921 and 1928 they took over from the counties more than a hundred thousand miles, and there is no doubt that they will continue to take over additional mileage as rapidly as that already taken is improved.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

"This process of gradually increasing the size of the Federal aid and state highway system is having two effects. First, it brings under the control of the well equipped Federal and state highway departments mile after mile of the more important county roads and ensures that they will be improved as their importance demands.

"Second, the roads taken over, being the more heavily traveled of county highways, are those which have required the largest expenditure. Relieved of them the counties are able, without increase of local taxes, to expend a larger sum per mile on the remaining mileage and so effect a more lasting improvement.

This, then, is one way in which Federal and state improvement of the principal highways all of them farm-to-market roads is brightening the prospect for more rapid local road improvement of the main roads alone has made possible the great increase in number of motor vehicles in use. The high class of service afforded to these motor vehicles by the improved main roads has made the owners of the vehicles willing and able to pay ever-increasing sums for road construction and maintenance.

"Between 1921 and 1928 the amount of this payment by the owners of motor vehicles increased from $164,000,000 to $627.000,000. The portion of these increasing funds that has gone into the state treasuries has provided the means for taking over from the counties an increasing mileage of the more heavily traveled local roads, that have been the counties greatest burdens. But while the local governments have thus profited indirectly, they have also shared directly in these increasings of the main roads, for the share of the motor vehicle taxes paid directly to the counties has increased from $22,000,000 in 1921 to $104,000,000 in 1928.

"The fact that the motor vehicle owners, as a class, are the most willing of

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taxpayers means that they feel that they are more than repaid by the road service they receive in return, and this return and consequent willing tax payment are primarily the result of the improvement of the main roads.

"This is the result of the wise policy of selecting for first improvement the most important roads. The improvement of these roads has earned a surplus above their cost of maintenance, which surplus it has been possible to use for the improvement of other roads in the order of their importance. Only by the orderly process that has been followed could this result have been achieved, and it is only by the extension of this same process that the roads of lesser importance can be progressively and adequately improved without laying an in-

AMENDMENT TO CONSTITUTION PROPOSED BY GOOD ROADS ASSOCIATION

(Continued from page 7) Rest on said bonds or any part thereof, as provided herein, and except in case of emergencies arising from invasions riots, insurrections or acts of God resulting in damage to State highways, and then only when the peace, health or safety and economic welfare of any considerable number of persons in any community in the State are menaced thereby and for which no other funds are appropriated or available from state highway funds without serious interference with state highway requirements otherwise.

SECTION 14. The provisions of this Article are declared hereby to be man-datory and self-executing, and shall be in full force and effect on and from the day next following the day on which the Governor shall have issued his proc-lamation declaring this Amendment to be the law.

Page Sixteen ARIZONA HIGHWAYS May, 1930 SHOOTING THE RAPIDS OF THE COLORADO

(Continued from page 9) Thus and wished the bear cub onto the "Dellenbaugh." "Cataract" had the bad habit of gnawing our legs and biting our bare feet when we were busy rowing. He became especially peeved whenever the cockpit in which he was quartered filled with water from a breaking wave. The "Coronado," in addition to having a load of six men and the dog, now car-ried all of the salvaged material and be-came as unwieldy as an old Mississippi River scow. Every little wave dashed water into the cockpits, and there were three of the river's worst rapids ahead!

While rounding a bend in the river several miles below Dubendorf Rapids, we came suddenly upon a spectacle which will ever remain vivid in my recol-lection of the canyon. Before us, as startling as a mirage in the desert, ap-peared a torrent of water falling some two hundred feet from an immense hole in the perpendicular canyon wall which rose above a huge bank of yellow sand not far from the water's edge. Only un-til we drank of the ice-cold, clear water did we realize our great good luck in findng relief from the intense heat and sandy river water. We all felt as though we wanted to spend the rest of our lives in this spot, but as we were behind our schedule and low on food we all too soon turned our backs on this "oasis on the river."

After a number of days we passed in-to the volcanic region of the lower reaches of the river. Here the walls were streaked with black lava flows and rose abruptly from the water's edge high up to the rim. Cinders and basalt formations were exposed on all sides. It seems fitting that this region, seared by the breath of fire, should enjoy the dis-tinction of harboring the river's worst rapids-Lava Falls.

We came to this demon of the canyon and at once saw that the tales of its fury had not been exaggerated. No exploring party is known to have ever dropped over the head of this cataract; at least to live and tell about it. The falls constitute an initial sheer ten to fifteen-foot drop over a lava dike or dam, and a resultant rapids dropping down to a new level of the river a quarter of a mile further on. Just as the great Sockdologer is famed for its high converging waves, so Lava Falls is dis-tinguished for its deep water-holes. Great driftwood logs dropped by us into one of these eddies skirting the boulders on the shore, disappeared, and werenever again seen to rise to the surface. We had to cut skids and rollers with which to push, pull and lift the boats over and around the boulders so as to again be able to launch them into the channel just below the first bad drops Some distance below Lava Falls we passed out of the limits of the National Park and came to Separation Rapids, the most historical on the river. It was here that three men left Major Powell's expedition in 1869. After somehow reaching the rim these men were killed by the Indians. Had they only known that by braving the terrors of this rapids they would soon have been out of bad water. We had an exciting descent through Separation Rapids. After barely escaping being dashed against the canyon walls, our boat was caught in a whirlpool and the bow sucked under water. We broke the remaining good oarlocks pulling ourselves out.

We rode exceeding swift water for miles and came to Mattewittika Rapids, which has the reputation of being Lava Falls' runner-up in points of danger and obstacles presented. After two hours' watching the currents and locating the concealed rocks, we decided that better than line our boats from the two hundred-foot ledge overhanging the river on the north side as was done in low water stage by earlier expeditions, we would do better in the prevailing dangerous high stage to shove our boats around through outlying boulders to the brink of the rapids and shoot from there, keeping between the canyon wall and the immense boulders partly submerged and not more than twenty feet away from the ledge. We discarded every article that was not absolutely needed so as to lighten the boats, especially ours, the "Coronado." Cooking utensils, pots, pans, blankets and even clothing were cast overboard. The "Dellenbaugh" would have struck the ledge had not a return wave lifted it back into the narrow channel. The "Coronado," with its heavy load, lost its position, turned broadside, and was smothered in an avalanche of foam but came through safely.

Proceeding on the fast and comparatively smooth water we soon passed through and beyond the imposing and towering west portal of the Grand Canyon. Looking back, we could see how the raging river had cut a deep, jagged incision through the high plateau. The scenes changed rapidly. The intermittent lesser canyons and gorges revealed the black desert uplands in the distance. We pressed on to Black Canyon, now famous as the site of the proposed Boulder Dam. We saw the surveyors' marks high up on the canyon walls as we sped past. Just before entering Black Canyon, we visited the camp of two Las Vegas men, who gave us a loaf of bread and a round of tobacco. That fluffy white bread tasted like a million dollars and, like the tobacco, was consumed before we were back in our places in the boats. Farther on we began to see more signs of life and noted many abandoned settlements, mines and ore mills. On the third night after leaving Mattewittika, we arrived in the little settlement of Mohave, having averaged more than fifty miles a day. Our food during the last two days consisted for the most part of melons given us by Indian settlers along the line. In the forenoon of the next day the expedition reached its destination, The Needles, California, after having been on the river forty-three days. After securing clothes we entered the town and were royally received by its citizens.

To my fellow members of The American Forestry Association, I wish to recommend the confines of the Grand Canyon as the ideal place of refuge from business no letters, "'phones" or "wires" from the office, or any other place for that matter, can ever reach and annoy you. None of the conventions of modern society need be observed. You will not have to bother with clothes in summer, neither will you be obliged to shave and tidy up. It is the one place where man can revert to type and can take to the dwellings which were abandoned by cave men in the dim past. But let none of my readers seriously contemplate making this trip without a thorough study of the region, adequate preparation for water transportaion, and above all, an expert boatman to guide the party. It is a serious undertaking, for many lives have been lost in futile attempts to navigate the stream and scarcely more than a score of men have ever descended the full length of the Canyon.

CORRECTION

Through a typographical error in the table on page six of the April issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. in the story on "Dam Supervision" by W. W. Lane, the City Park Reservoir of Flagstaff was given a capacity of 245. acre feet. By advices from Frank Goodman, City Engineer of Flagstaff, the capacity should have been 24.5 acre feet.